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Jul 26, 2013

It’s that time of the week again and this week it’s my dulcet tones interviewing Jo Spurrier author of the Children of the Black Sun series. You will find the show notes below but here’s the player and the download link if you prefer.

Show notes:

In this episode Sean interviews Australian Fantasy novelist Jo Spurrier. Jo's debut novel Winter be My Shield was nominated for an Aurealis and Norma K Hemming Award. In this interview they talk about why someone with a background in the sciences decides to write epic fantasy, the decision to write about a disabled character and where the Children of the Black Sun seriessits in relation to the grim works of Martin and Abercrombie.

Jul 25, 2013

Yesterday I received an email from Goodreads, informing me that I am in their top 1% of reviewers. I must admit that for a brief minute I daydreamed of limousines and red carpets, of a Parkinson style Masterclass TV show interviewing JK Rowling or Stephen King.

Actually, I lie. I thought, Cool but what they hell does that mean? I should also note that with 20 million people on Goodreads that I share the 1% with 19999 other reviewers.

Am I in the top 100 or the bottom 19900’s?

Is it an indication of how many reviews I have posted? How many of them have been viewed?

It is ultimately meaningless. Which brings me to the question. Why? Why Goodreads are you attempting to curry favour with me (and 19999 others)? Is it just a simply scheme to spread your marketing further, to draw more people to the site, through my social networks that I have built up.

You make all the money from the site.

I often wonder if Goodreads and other sites are worth it for reviewers. We generate content and page hits (and ultimately money) for Amazon and I don’t know that being a presence on Goodreads actually grants me anything but another place to post my reviews. Sure it’s a free platform but so’s my blog. Do Publishers check reviewer rankings before deciding on posting out review copy?

Money should flow to the writer no? Should that go for the review writer as well?

And by money I don’t mean being paid for specific reviews, but being cut in on some of the money we are helping generate.

Once upon A time we had newspaper reviewers( you can still find this rapidly vanishing breed) and those reviewers were paid to review, remuneration was indirect, combating conflict of interest. Those times have gone but one thing still hasn’t changed - the corporate entity still makes the money, the real top 1% still make the money.

So I reaffirm my commitment to advertising Booktopia, an Australian company that has an affiliate scheme that has generated five fold what Amazon ever did and that actually sees reviewers as worthy of including in a cut of the pie.

Your thoughts?

Note: I am not really cranky, just casting a sideways glance at a company that’s getting me to do their marketing for them.

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Jul 24, 2013

Booktopia have another free shipping deal running until Friday midnight so I have trawled through some of the bargains in Science Fiction and Fantasy DVD’s to save you the trouble, though the free shipping deal applies to everything including pre-orders. You might for instance want to check out JK Rowling’s Crime novel for yourself. You can read my review here.

But on to the deals:

DVD’s

The New Twilight Zone Season One and Two are at 37% and 42% off respectfully. If classic horror is more your thing The Haunted Palace ( a movie adaptation of a HP Lovecraft’s The Case Of Charles Dexter Ward) starring Vincent Price can be snapped up for under $10. In a similar price range is A Vampire’s Kiss starring Nicholas Cage if you like a bit of romcom horror.

There’s also a documentary on the Fantasy Artist Frank Frazetta called Frazetta : Painting With Fire that looks interesting for those of us who discovered fantasy before Harry Potter.

Jul 19, 2013

David McDonald returns this week with another interview from Continuum 9. In this episode he talks to Kirstyn McDermott, award winning author of Perfections and the recently released Caution: Contains Small Parts, and co-host of the Writer and the Critic Podcast (fear not, this is a Mondy free zone).

In this episode they discuss the challenges of transitioning between short and long fiction, and the comeback of the novella. Kirstyn shares her thoughts on the changing face of the publishing industry and discusses her experiences with the ebook only release of Perfections. And, we hear Kirstyn’s tips on how you go about reviewing the work of people you know.

Our protagonist Pandora lives with her Dad. Not her biological Dad mind you but the only man she has ever known as a father. Her mother died last year and there’s some tension between Grandma and Dad and whether or not he’s really fit to take care of her. Pandora’s not doing so well at school either. After some stern words from her teacher she participates in the school science fair to show increased commitment to her studies. It’s here that she unmasks the class “con man” Declan, who was using deception and technology to try and win. This brings her to the attention of a Mr Cogito Ergo Sum and begins her very strange adventure full of philosophical conundrums.

Story is foremost in The Machine Who Was Also a Boy, which is why I think it will succeed. There are philosophical conundrums but they are suborned to the narrative rather than being the reason for its existence. So you have drama, adventure, imaginative weirdness that kids love and a little bit of the fundamentals around learning to think for yourself.

Excellent middle grade fiction and not to bad for us older thinkers either.

Unless you have been camping in the wilds of New Zealand you’ll have no doubt heard that The Cuckoo’s Calling, a solid and entertaining debut novel from Robert Galbraith, is in fact a new crime novel by novelist JK Rowling. It is interesting to note that prior to a leak outing Rowling as an author, that the reviews were largely positive, and sales modest. Cue the leak and a quick review of Amazon one star reviews and the book snobbishness and the Rowling hate is palpable.

A supermodel commits suicide, but her brother doubts the police findings.

Private Detective Cormoran Strike, homeless and having just dumped his manipulative girlfriend, is watching his business fall apart until John Bristow brother of Supermodel Lula Landry, comes asking for his help. It looks like an open and shut case but then the client is paying double.

But what about the book?

This is in fact the first Rowling I have read and on this experience alone I would read more in the Cormoran Strike series. If you are looking for a thriller paced mystery then The Cuckoo’s Calling isn’t for you. It’s a very British murder mystery, by which I mean it has that cynical slightly gloomy edge to it and it’s a methodical detective story. Its not without tension and suspense but if you are looking for high octane thrillers Childs or Eisler are your best bet.

Like all good mysteries it strikes just the right balance between giving the reader enough clues to go on and letting slip the reveal too early.

On typing this review I am struck by the similarities, or the similar backgrounds of Strike and Lee Childs’ Jack Reacher . On the one hand you have the all round, square jawed American hero and on the other you have Cormoran Strike. Strike is likable and believable as an ex-SIB investigator and I applaud Rowling’s decision to make him an amputee, slightly overweight and still saddled with the school yard moniker “pubehead”. Out of the two I find Strike more believable.

Robin, the temp secretary with an eye for detail and a secret desire, I think to be a detective, developed nicely into a competent sidekick. I can see and indeed I hope this turns into a more Watson and Holmes sort of relationship where she gets her hands dirty and develops her natural talents.

I must admit that I enjoyed the subtle digs that Rowling had at the press and the glitterati. These I possibly would have overlooked had I not known it was her writing the book.

I you like the slightly darker tone of British mystery writing and the logical unravelling of a conundrum then this is the type of book for you.

Jul 16, 2013

The news broke earlier in the week that the author of the The Cuckoo’s Calling wasn’t in fact Robert Galbraith but JK Rowling. I hear that the one star muppets on Amazon apparently only turned up after that fact was revealed and until that point it had been reasonably well received for a debut i.e. positive reviews and reasonable sales (reasonable unless you don’t trust those dastardly publishers who are obviously lying and had to leak the fact that it was JK Rowling, because OMG it had only sold 500 HC copies in three months – seriously go back to saying the moon landings were faked).

I really would have liked to have read it without knowing it was JK Rowling, to have given it as clean a read as possible. I haven’t read anything else by her but the knowledge that the author is competent and established does mean that certain biases come into play.

Still it will be judged on whether it holds my attention, entertains. I am not a hardcore crime reader but I do enjoy the genre from time to time. So that’s all I intend to judge her on.

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This is the first Kate Elliot I have read and I sincerely wish that it wasn’t.

For you see, I really love it, the writing and the world building.

It’s that way with reviewing sometimes, you’ll get book two of a series or book three without having had a chance to read the preceding books. I often joke that my super power is reading the last book of a series(without having read the others), most reviewers I don’t think would bother – the dilemma of wanting to give an author a fair go but not having the time to chase down and read the other books.

So yes damn it I took one for the team and am grateful. I’ll track down the preceding titles and read them in my own time.

I think most competent writers today interleave enough back-story in their second and third books for a reader with sufficient imagination to come in cold and pick up the threads and run with it. Elliot seems to have done that exceedingly well here and I would need to have read previous works to pick out the weave, for their were no glaring info dumps – she’s a polished writer no doubt.

As a book it stands well enough on its own, feels very much as though it has definite beginning, middle and end. The resolution was one that I had not expected but fits very well within the themes of the novel.

For those of you not to have had the pleasure of reading Elliot’s other works in the series Cold Steel is set on an alternate earth. The introduction of magic, an ice age and altered landmasses make it fantasy rather than alternate history. If you had told me that it mixed sentient dinosaurs, roman legions, Amazons, magic and the beginnings of a worker’s movement I may have winced.

Elliot has done a splendid job though of making the world and its oddities blend together in a way that causes tired and clichéd topics to pop with freshness.

I can’t fault her on her characterisation either, she presents well rounded “real” women, strong in a variety of ways as you would expect of real women. We have fighting Amazons, Demagogues as well as politically savvy social climbers. The men are an equally well rounded group of individuals. The trolls – sentient Troodons, are a very interesting take with some scientific underpinnings.

I can’t say how Cold Steel compares to the previous books in the series but my enjoyment of it has as stated above has encouraged me to buy the previous books.

Jul 15, 2013

Sometimes authors just have to do it for themselves and the dynamic duo of Joyce Chng and Joelyn Alexandra have formed Vellum and Ink in an effort to support Singaporean Genre Writers through the provision of writing services and information.

If you live in Singapore and write genre or if you have events that Singaporean writers might be able to take advantage of please get in touch with them through their website.

I hesitate to say I am a fan of Joyce only because I haven’t read more than a chapter. Odd, I know but I couldn’t and still can’t afford the time to read purely for pleasure (gives Ziggurat of review books a weary stare). That being said, I thought the writing was good enough to purchase everything with his name on it.

Its only available in hardback at the moment but if that’s too pricey Booktopia have some of his other work at a decent price here.

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I am a bit of a fan of Solaris, they publish the wonderful Rowena Cory Daniells for a start. In a stunningly brilliant move they have also done a two book deal with Australia’s own Mr Anthology, Jonathan Strahan. Solaris will be publishing the next two instalments of Jonathan’s “critically-acclaimed and award-winning TheBest Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year”.

Go here to check out the rest of the press release and a picture of a Jonathan with a beard.

If you haven’t already you should check out one of Jonathan’s latest collections, also from Solaris Fearsome Journeys. It’s only $6.95 at Booktopia.

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Jul 14, 2013

I have just finished my regular quarterly column for International Speculative Fiction. I have reviewed Dean & Nikki Alfar’s The Best of Philippine Speculative Fiction 2005-2010 (provided by Mr Charles Tan) - I will let you know when it’s published.

In the meantime if you are curious about stepping outside of the mainstream Anglo-centric genre and reading some great Filipino SpecFic then Cheryl over at Wizard’s Tower has some easily accessible ebooks by Dean Francis Alfar and a fantasy anthology edited by Paolo Chikiamco.

Jul 13, 2013

Flower and Weed the short story by world fantasy award winning Margo Lanagan is available on Amazon free for a short time. It’s set in the world and time of Lanagan’s Sea Hearts (or The Brides of Rollrock Island for you Northern folk). I am part way through it and like almost everything Lanagan writes its got beautifully flowing poetic prose.

Airwaves, internets, interwebs whatever take your pick, it’s out. Alex Pierce of Galactic Suburbia and Last Short Story fame interviews Cat Sparks. I love the conversational tone that the two of them have.

In this episode we steal Alex from Galactic Suburbia and get her to interview the wonderful Cat Sparks, award winning writer and fiction editor at Australia's premier science magazine - Cosmos. They discuss Cat's early career as a photographer of rock star hopefuls and politicians, before moving on to talking about her recent collection put out by Ticonderoga. They also cover her involvement in Australian speculative fiction as a small press publisher, writer and editor. Of particular interest will be her bar panel discussion on the structure of novels using table condiments and cutlery.

[Note: We apoligise for the feedback echo experienced in the first couple of questions Alex asks]

Jul 8, 2013

Next is a themed anthology produced by the Canberra Speculative Fiction Guild and edited by Simon Petrie and Robert Porteous. The theme centres around the following concept:

Next suggests ‘change’, perhaps, but it doesn’t have to invoke change, it can simply be an account of cause-and-effect. Sometimes it’s the absence of change, the sense of inevitability, that gives the story its terrible power and its resonance.

Or it might be a rite-of-passage; of invention and exploration; of the testing and transgression of boundaries; or a story laden with doom or hope or just the inevitability of inescapable repetition. Yup, this theme is a theme for all seasons; it’s a cut and come again theme that can mean pretty much whatever people want it to mean.

Now despite what may appear to be a rather open theme this collection hangs together very well. I doffs me hat to the editors for their selections and the collation of the work. There’s some well known writers with absolutely cracking work and some new faces with a good tale to tell. I didn’t love every story( and outside of single author collections I think that’s the norm) but overall I enjoyed the experience. I will pick out the highlights, not necessarily the best stories in the collection but certainly the ones that were most interesting.

Possibly my favourite is the anthology opener The Ninety Two by Claire McKenna.

When the devil died (aged forty-five, heart attack from overtraining, keeledover on the Nuggets Crossing five kilometres into a ten kilometre run), he waswearing his number ninety-two guernsey, and even then nobody wanted totouch it, or him, because if there was ever a man averse to kindness or tendernessit was Beaufort Kinsey. So they stood in the middle of the road instead, eighteendumbfounded men watching him die, and not one lifting a finger to help.

A story that manages to mix small town rural culture,football and horror. Claire is a graduate of Clarion South and I think that this work is extremely polished, and hits just the right tone, never over playing the aspects of bogan culture it so openly shines a light on. I think if you like the sort of work that Karen Warren produced in her Through Splintered Walls, you’ll love Claire McKenna.

I have read editor Simon Petrie’s work before and I did wonder if his penchant for humour and gags influenced the inclusion of Martin Livings’ Cause and Effect, which I wasn’t so sure whether to chortle or groan over. Well written and played very well Mr Livings.

There were some unique takes on fairy tale and myth – Edwina Harvey's Next Cried the Faun is playful with a nudge and a wink and a good follow up to Livings’ piece. By comparison The Wooden Heart by Tracie Macbride, explores darkness, human sexuality and the peril inherent in dealing with the Fae. Prophesy and fairytales don’t always have human benefit at their centre.

Daniel Coleman’s Gambler’s Blues is another tale that should make readers feel uneasy about wishing to find a pot-o-gold at the end of the rainbow, harking back to those stories of the wee folk who are more out to ensnare you, than bring you good fortune.

Vandiemansland,by Ian McHugh and Ned Kelly and the Zombies by Craig Cormick were good explorations of Australian history with speculative fiction elements. Vandiemansland was spoiled to some extent by my viewing of a movie by the same name, they cover similar themes and I felt I may have been desensitised by the viewing of the later to some of the historical aspects of McHugh’s work. In saying that though, I think that McHugh has hit the tone spot on. Cormack's work was an interesting mashup of a much used subgenre with an iconic and much over studied Australian folk hero and it comes out of that mix better than its genre forbears would dictate- a delightful what if.

Gillian Polack’s Someone’s Daughter gave me flashbacks to an M R James adaptation. Polack’s writing style in this piece manages to evoke an otherworldliness, a detachment from reality that compliments the story perfectly.

Stories in the Square and When Money Talks are steampunk infused and give the reader of that subgenre common touchstones with fresh and interesting tales.

It’s a large and diverse collection that I am just scratching the surface of - Janeen Webb has a heartbreaking story and Kris Ashton’s The Midway Hotel hits a little close to home with my long commute to work. I could go on. But what you want to know is – is it worth laying money down for. At $5 from smashwords you are getting a great deal. I’d pay double that easily for the quality found in this collection.

This book was received free of charge, if you would like to purchase a copy head here.

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Jul 5, 2013

Well everything seems to have gone smoothly with the scheduled post and we now have the first in our regular season of the all new mostly weekly Galactic Chat.

Welcome back to the relaunched Galactic Chat. In this episode Sean chats with Australian Award winning Fantasy and science fiction author Margo Lanagan. They talk about her nomination for the inaugural Stella Award and what that nomination meant for her and perhaps the speculative fiction genre in Australia.

They also delve into Margo's fascination with folktale and its consistent popularity for authors and readers alike. Sean admits that Margo has the ability to break him and make him cry with the emotional gravity of her work and finally they talk gritty fantasy and why women don't share that podium with George RR Martin or Joe Abercrombie.

You can go to the Podbean site and subscribe. You can search for us on the iTunes directory and give us some stars or you can play in the player below or you can download here.